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Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 11, 12 January 1918, Page 4

Following IS the official Weather forecast for 24 hours from 9 a.m. this day:— "Easterly winds, moderate to strong, freshening. Expect dull Weather with much mists and f6g in parts. Rain probable. Barometer unsteady, with ft falling tendency. Sea rough, tides high. Mr Harvey Turner, of E, Turner and Sorts, fruit auctioneers, told ft reporter this morning that there is every indication of a short season for local stone fruit, especially, peaches and plums, late varieties of which are already on the market. Prices are low at present, but a considerable advance is expected soon. At a meeting yesterday afternoon of representatives from Birkenhead and Northcote of the Little Shoal Bay Reserve BoaTd, it was resolved: to immediately put in hand improvements to the Sea wall, by raising the stone portion on the Birkenhead end, and the construction of a. fur ther timber breastwork about 200 ft long at the •Northcote approach. The manager of the Christchurch tramways speaks very strongly against the practice of boarding moving cars. This practice, he says, is highly dangerous, and was much in evidence last Monday, the first day of the New Zealand Cup meeting. "We have gone through so far without accidents," he added, "but if people persist in taking" such great riskß we shall be exceedingly fortunate if we continue to do so." Christchurch is not the only place where people suffer from the delusion that the car just going by is the only one that will suit them. The Defence Department has notified the Military Service Boards that_ no Second Division reservists are to go into camp before April. The balance of the ' men in Glass A, with First Division men who have recently come of age, Will be called up by Gazette notice next Tuesday. There are about 3,800 Class A men left, and those under the other classification will number between 600 and 700. The first ballot for men in Class B of the Second. Division will not be taken for some time. A Southern exchange states' that all the elements Of a tragedy were present in an accident which happened in the Clyde-Cromwell Gorge on Sa.tiirday.morn-1 ing. Two lady visitors from Dunedin set | out to drive to Cromwell. The horse was a quiet and reliable one, and all went well until they. were, .ascending the hill 'at Gibraltar, when through the sudden ■breaking of a trace, horse, trap, and occupants were precipitated,over the bank : —a drop of about. 20ft. The ladies had miraculous escapes, getting off almost unhurt, but the poor animal was so badly injured that it had to be destroyed. According to the Dunedin "Star," Port Chalmers presents a very husy appearance at the present moment, and several hundred men, representing all branches of trade in connection with ship repairs, are employed. Eyery vessel at Port —and they number five or six— is undergoing overhaul, and the clash of hammers and other implements can_ be heard all day long. Matters on the Dunedin waterfront are Hone too hfisß,"there •being only two vessels at the wharves discharging general cargo. However, the majority of the watersiders are finding employment, the extra rush at Port absorbing all available labour. The largest photographic group ever taken in Auckland is at present on view in the window of Mr John Leech, Shortland Street. It is thirty inches in length, and shows practically all the boys who attended the Auckland Grammar School last yeaT —about 700 in number. The iriginal negative, which was taken in the crater of Mount Eden, and the enlargement, are the work of the photographic staff of the Brett Printing and Publishing Co., Ltd. Owing to the distance at which the camera had to be placed from the sitters —on the opposite slope of the crater —it was necessary to use a lens of 16in focus, and the group, as it appeared on the negative, was only sin across. In spite of this, however. the faces of all the 700 boys are clearly recognisable iii the enlargement. Seventeen years have passed 6ince the Australian Commonwealth was founded. Of the seventy-five members of the first House of Representatives only fifteen are in the present House. Sir John Forrest is the only member of the first Ministry who is still in active politics. Four members of the original Senate have sat continuously for the seventeen years. All who sat m the first House of Representatives have held office of some kind, with the exception of Mr Manfold, who vvas out of the House for ten years, and Mr Bruce Smith. The changes in the House have not been more striking (the "Argus" remarks) than the upheavals which have taken place in party relations. It was the boast of the old Labour party for many years that it had not lost one of the men in the House of Representatives who composed the Cabinet of which Mr J. C. Watson was the leader. There are only four of those men remaining to pay allegiance to Caucus principles, while there are five under the Nationalist banner. Boston, (Mass., U.S.) newspapers state that the famous schooner-yacht America, which in 1851 won the Royai Yacht Squadron Cup, since snccessfully defended as the America Cup in twelve international races, was sold to the members of the Eastern Yacht Club, of Marblehead. The principal object of the purchasers was to save the celebrated craft from the scrap-heap. It was said the America would probably be preserved as a museum. Since the winnincr of the Cup the America has had an adventurous career. She took part in the Civil War as a privateer. Subsequently she was a sunken hulk in the St. John's River, Florida, a training ship for American midshipmen at Annapolis, and one of the defenders of the cup in the first race in 1870. The yacht has been owned by the family of former Governor Benjamin F. Butler, of Lowell, since 1870, and was sold by his son and daughter. She vvas last in commission in 1901, when she was sailed in the cruise of the New York Yacht Club by Mr. Butler Amos. The farming population of Northern France is gradually trickling back to its native soil as the Germans are forced from it by the repeated "pushes" of the British and French armies. It is estimated that about 25;400 persons have returned to their holdings since the Germans began to retreat. It transpired at the Masterton MagisCourt (says the Wairarapa Age') that two young men and two young girls consumed a dozen bottles of beer while indulging in a picnic party on the banks of the Waipoua River on Sunday afternoon. Something gigantic in the shape of a mushroom was found recently on the .hills at Diamond Harbour, Lytelton. The ■mushroom, which was shown to a reporter, measured three feet nine inches round, and is perfectly formed.

The Mayor (Mr J. H. Gunson) presided over a meeting of the Claims Board of the Auckland Patriotic Association yesterday afternoon. Sixty-five cases, a large number of which were those of returned soldiers who applied for. reneWals of allowances previously granted for terms now about to expire, were dealt withj and in the majority of cases the grants were renewed. ''Several applications for assistance, made by soldier's who have recently retumed,were granted. Domestic conversation in London ii still mainly about air-raids. Undoubtedly they have had a disturbing effect, particularly on the poorer aliens. But (writes a correspondent of the " Weekly' Scotsman ") the effect altogether is negligible when one thinks of London as a whole. Many employers of labour speak with enthusiasm of a staff which, after had nights, turns up as usual, and the spirit of the ordinary householder and family is what one would expect. I have seen the same sort of war improvisation that occurs at the front shown by matrons here without any fuss, only a little amused by the absurd side of it. One of these was the appearance on a balcony of a lady during one of the raids, wearing a big electroplate dishcover on her head. She thought the raid was over, but took that precaution against shrapnel. Another lady, having to cross a square to reach her shelter, also wore a dish-cover with a cushion under it, and another had a pewter dish as a shield. It was a procession that ought to be commemorated. Writes a Manaia (neari Hawera)"soldier from France: I have read somewhere or have been told of the hard tasks that the women of the Taranaki cow district perform. But their lives are a luxury of rest and ease compared to the hard lives of those French girls and women. New Zealand women should come out here to learn what hard work means. To mc it is repugnant, and the tendency must be to coarsen and produce a hard fibre. Though in actual fact it does not appear to, if one may judge from the conversation and manners of these Women. You will see them loading and ,* carting manure, grooming and stabling - horses, cutting and loading wood, working chaff cutters and wood pulpers, the latter especially very laborious work, carrying heavy loads of mangolds on a yoke across the shoulders, just as Chinese vegetable sellers do, and similar heavy * work. And their hours are from dawn till dark. Nor is this because rt is war time. lam told it is their normal work. And as there is no Sunday in the sens* that we regard it, theirs is a seven days working week. A vexy sad story concerning the rer turn *of a solder has ,been told to the FAtham paper. He arrived recently, and was surprised and disappointed at there ' being no friends or relatives to meet him. On the way up to Wangahui in" . the train he learned that during his absence his father and mother had both died, also a brother, and that the home had now changed hands. The "Waitara Mail" says: The earth wast removed a couple of days ago from . the timber foundation of the railway turnstile, which was put down about forty years ago? The soundness of the • totara, while not surprising to the initiated, was certainly surprising to those who are only acquainted with the sappy' stuff sold to-day. 1 Should the teaching of Home Science " be confined to girls? "No," said a delegate at the conference of the New Zealand Educational Institute. He held that Such teaching was almost equally necessary for both sexes, and said that he would even go as far as to say that no '• man or woman should be allowed to get•"' married unless they could provide per- , , tifioates to show that each had under-' ■ ;: i gone a course. As showing as how some soldiers have a premonition, a letter received by a Gisborne resident from a young man who made the Supreme sacrifice in the Passi ehendaele attack, contained the state- ; ment that "somehow or another I cannot get rid of the feeling that I am going to i catch it," and he asked the recipient to : assist in cheering up the home circle if , the worst did happen. , Recently (says an exchange) a deepwater steamer loaded -at one of the ■ Australian ports. While the job was-in progress an armed guard was on the pier night and day, no British being , allowed to come near without a permit. , Now—take a' deep breath! The wharf- ■ inger's name was Keinhamer and his assistant's Bismarck.